Letter: Separate Wal-Mart fiction from fact

Hopefully when the City Council considers the proposed Wal-Mart supercenter later this summer they will consider the facts introduced by a Navigant Consulting study revealing the economic benefits of Wal-Mart supercenters.

[Charles Kasey Kitterman]

The facts are both political parties want us all working for Wal Mart wages. The Republican party is a little more guilty in this endeavor. Their brain dead followers will respond to this post by accusing me of being a communist for suggesting all people in this country should be making good wages.

The Republican party wants to bring back a slave class.

[Captain Action]

Hey Kitterman, you must be crazy.Hillary Clinton was on the board of directors for Wal-Mart.The welfare people can't afford to shop anywhere else but Wal-Mart. The fact is, Wal-Mart has beat the competition because they have a great distribution system,that allows them to keep their prices down.If you don't like Wal-Mart, don't shop there.

[Michael Jones]

Screw Wallmart. Everywhere they go the standard of living goes down. Wages fall and benefits go way down.

I've had friends and relatives work for them. Their auto care division is the worst. As bad a Midas as far ripping people off.

[Joe Sixpack]

Luis, the "150 jobs" you talk about will be minimum wage part time, so about 10 grand a year. Food Max and Winco pay about 50 grand with real benefits, while Raley's and Safeway pay around 35 grand with some benefits. For some reason, we seem to have some kind of self-destructive bent to lower wages to subsistence levels. Wal-Mart has an edge because it pays crummy wages. Why do suckers buy into this business-led campaign to destroy the middle class jobs? And to all of you retirees out there who love Wally Mart because it's cheap, who will pay your government-run health insurance (Medicare, MediCal) and government-run pension (Social Security) when everyone's on minimum wage? The rich people? We need more middle class jobs in Chico, not fewer.

[Hard to Believe]

Wal-Mart kills small businesses and it kills small towns. It kills them dead. Families suffer, local businesses suffer and towns suffer. Wal-Mart been doing it for decades. It's their method of operation and they excel at it. Their pay is low and their benefits are awful if they offer them at all. Gee, who wouldn't want a great employer like that to come in and ruin their town?

Use a little common sense here. Do you won't local profits staying in Chico where they will be re-invested locally or do you want them going to Bentonville, Arkansas to be distributed to Wal-Mart stockholders around the world? Simple choice really.
How many Wal-Mart stockholders do you think are going to re-invest and spend their profits in Chico? How many of them have ever even heard of Chico? How many of them giving a flying cat's ass about Chico?

[Doug Chandler]

How valid is a study about Wal-Mart by a consulting company paid for by Wal-Mart?

Lugo, whose motivations might be questioned, states that sales taxes increase and business permits increase after Wal-Mart Super Centers open in California. Not much logic behind that statement. It seems likely that tax revenues would reflect economic conditions of the time and area but since Wal-Mart sells virtually every product made it isn't likely that other retailers are being created as a result of a Wal-Mart opening.

Lugo sites Yuba City and Anderson as having increasing retail sales tax revenue as a result of Wal-Mart opening- I suggest that the increased tax revenue is the result of the inreasing population growth experienced by both of those communities and that Wal-Mart played little or no role in the increases.

All anyone needs to do is look at what has happened to sooooo many communities where a Wal-Mart Super Center has opened. The "down town" dies, the store fronts get boarded up and in time the business section looks like a ghost town. The character and flavor of those communities is lost forever.

[Fred C]

Who payed Navigant?

[Justice for Whom]

I would rather pay stockholders than support unions, which at one time were a necessity, but now are a powerful drain on our economy.
Where is it written that store employees need to make $20.00 an hour. High wages push up prices. If you don't like Wal-Mart don't shop there. I don't shop at Raley's as their prices are too high. I like Winco as their prices are lower. Walmart provides jobs that is all I concern myself with, jobs. Having a job pays my rent.

[WalMart rival]

WalMart is a very tough competitor, but can be beaten by a smart retailer, I was successful head to head against them for many years.
Those retailers small and large who want to do exactly what they have always done are the ones who are being shut down.

[Daniel in Hobbs]

Hard to Believe wrote:

Wal-Mart kills small businesses and it kills small towns. It kills them dead. Families suffer, local businesses suffer and towns suffer. Wal-Mart been doing it for decades. It's their method of operation and they excel at it. Their pay is low and their benefits are awful if they offer them at all. Gee, who wouldn't want a great employer like that to come in and ruin their town?
Use a little common sense here. Do you won't local profits staying in Chico where they will be re-invested locally or do you want them going to Bentonville, Arkansas to be distributed to Wal-Mart stockholders around the world? Simple choice really.
How many Wal-Mart stockholders do you think are going to re-invest and spend their profits in Chico? How many of them have ever even heard of Chico? How many of them giving a flying cat's **** about Chico?

what a complete and total crock of shit...I live in a small town...wal-mart is the best thing to happen here in decades..since wal mart opened up..the town has grown, more business has come..and now we are getting a lowes...friggin awesome..wal mart rules!

[Ben Davis]

Justice for Whom wrote:

I would rather pay stockholders than support unions, which at one time were a necessity, but now are a powerful drain on our economy.
Where is it written that store employees need to make $20.00 an hour. High wages push up prices. If you don't like Wal-Mart don't shop there. I don't shop at Raley's as their prices are too high. I like Winco as their prices are lower. Walmart provides jobs that is all I concern myself with, jobs. Having a job pays my rent.

Maybe if you had a union job you wouldn't have to pay rent, maybe you could pay on a mortgage... A union is simply an organization of workers, and in view of the Wal-Marts and all of the anti-worker legislation and anti-worker media it seems that unions are needed now more than any time in the last 50 years.

[Len Biggs]

WalMart rival wrote:

WalMart is a very tough competitor, but can be beaten by a smart retailer, I was successful head to head against them for many years.
Those retailers small and large who want to do exactly what they have always done are the ones who are being shut down.

And now you have been driven out of business too.

[chapmantown]

this is your capital system.....wal mart isnt doing anything wrong.

let the invisiable hand run the market. If you cant compete to bad. damn dinosaurs anyways

[joe six braincells]

Joe Sixpack wrote:

Luis, the "150 jobs" you talk about will be minimum wage part time, so about 10 grand a year. Food Max and Winco pay about 50 grand with real benefits, while Raley's and Safeway pay around 35 grand with some benefits. For some reason, we seem to have some kind of self-destructive bent to lower wages to subsistence levels. Wal-Mart has an edge because it pays crummy wages. Why do suckers buy into this business-led campaign to destroy the middle class jobs? And to all of you retirees out there who love Wally Mart because it's cheap, who will pay your government-run health insurance (Medicare, MediCal) and government-run pension (Social Security) when everyone's on minimum wage? The rich people? We need more middle class jobs in Chico, not fewer.

yeah when i walk into a grocery store what i really care about is how much the store pays their employees...who cares about lower prices that end up increasing my disposable income? haha your argument is absurd...take a class in economics

[WalMart rival]

Len Biggs wrote:

<quoted text>
And now you have been driven out of business too.

Please DO NOT presume anything about me, you could not be more wrong.
I currently am enjoying a second career as a writer and consultant to numerous companies, both retail and manufacturing, many of whom sell to WalMart, or compete with them.
BTW, I started at the bottom as a "minimum wage" grunt, cleaned bathrooms and worse, and WORKED my way up to a national position.

[An EX- Native Son]

We have a wally-world stupid center. The customer service sucks, the selection is horrible, and every time you find a product you really like, next week they don't sell it anymore. The crowds are horrendous, as is the traffic on the surrounding surface streets. We have had numerous Mom & Pop stores going under, and every single one says the same thing. In this economy, they can't fight the big box stores. This is FACT, people. We have seen it first hand in two different cities, and it is a crying shame. Wake up and smell the El-Toro Poo-Poo, folks. Wal-mart is NOT your friend.

[Foothill Guy]

45% of all Walmart employes receives some type of gov. assistance being food stamps etc.

SO WE TAXPAYERS DO PAY FOR WALMART BEING CHEAP TO THEIR EMPLOYEES

[chapmantown]

to restrict free enterprise....that thats...SOCIALISM!!!!ITS COMMUNISM!!!!

[alphabionic]

All this WalMart hate doesn't have anything to do with how they effect a community. It is politics, pure and simple. WalMart is Non-Union. Most of the people working their stay there. This is not in the Union's book of tolerance. The first time I read Wal mart bashing was at the site, Communist Party USA.

[Charles Kasey Kitterman]

Captain Action wrote:

Hey Kitterman, you must be crazy.Hillary Clinton was on the board of directors for Wal-Mart.The welfare people can't afford to shop anywhere else but Wal-Mart. The fact is, Wal-Mart has beat the competition because they have a great distribution system,that allows them to keep their prices down.If you don't like Wal-Mart, don't shop there.

What have I ever posted that would make you think I give a rat fart about Hillary?